NEWSWIRE

Afghanistan Tour Dates Announced

Defending Intercontinental Cup champion's Afghanistan will visit Canada August 2-5 in the opening match for both teams in the 2011-2013 Intercontinental Cup. Following the match, Afghanistan and Canada will compete in two One Day International Matches and 2 T20 International's.

After shocking many and qualifying for the 2009-2010 tournament, Afghanistan raced to the top of the table and defeated Scotland in the final match to win the title. Canada, a two time finalist, in contrast struggled in the previous edition of the tournament. Being in winning positions in early matches they were unable to hammer home the advantage, and finished last in the table. The match against Afghanistan in 2010 will be remembered for one of the great chases in the history of First Class Cricket as Afghanistan chased 474 to beat Canada by 6 wickets.

Canada and Afghanistan have also played some classic limited over matches with Afghanistan holding a 2-1 margin in ODI's and a 3-2 margin overall. Many of the matches have been tightly contested thrillers and fans of both countries can expect more of the same this summer in Toronto.

Cricket Canada is finalizing venue schedules for the matches and will announce them shortly. The match schedule will be as follows :

The ICC Intercontinental Cup is a cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council as part of its cricket development programme. It is designed to allow Associate Members of the ICC the chance to play first-class cricket matches against teams of similar skill in a competition environment and prepare them for eventual promotion to Test cricket status.The winners of the four-day tournament will receive $100,000 with $40,000 for second place from a total prize fund of $254,000. Ireland are the most successful side in the tournament's history having secured a hat-trick of titles from 2005 to 2007-08.